


Arrogant Confidence

by von_gelmini



Series: Ficlets [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Canon Age, Guilt, M/M, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Slash, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-24 18:42:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22262629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/von_gelmini/pseuds/von_gelmini
Summary: Taking Peter’s suit back had been the hardest thing he’d done in his life.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Series: Ficlets [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573102
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	Arrogant Confidence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [witchway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchway/gifts).



> Inspired by a pic set Witchway had me make for her.

Taking Peter’s suit back had been the hardest thing he’d done in his life. And he’d had a life full of doing hard things. At least for the past ten years. 

It had to be done. 

He kept telling himself that. 

Eventually, maybe, he’d convince himself.

Peter terrified him with the risks he took. But every risk the kid took hadn’t come nearly as close to killing him as what Tony had done. Egotistically playing at being a father figure. Thinking he was doing so much better than his own. Managing to do worse.

Despite Tony fucking things up royally (Peter only fucked up when Tony did, which… did that even make it Peter’s fuck up… would Peter have risked himself and a boatload of people if Tony had just TALKED to him instead of hamfistedly calling the FBI), Peter survived being crushed by tons of concrete. Survived riding a plane, protecting his irrelevant junk, down to the ground. Survived. No thanks to him.

Tony built Peter the safest, most protective suit he could. He used the nanotech he was working on for his own suit. Nothing less than what protected Iron Man would ever protect Peter again, if he had anything to say about it.

At headquarters, Peter let him prattle on, still playing at (an ever increasingly dysfunctional) father. While he made, once again, another of Howard’s mistakes. Setting Peter’s future up for him without bothering to ask what Peter wanted. As guilt over fuck up after fuck up piled on, he hoped to assuage it by buying Peter a present of truly epic proportions. Which the kid had the good grace to turn down.

And Peter didn’t see any of it as Tony’s fault. “That was a test.” Now he expected that Tony would test him instead of being there for him. Tony made Peter feel like he had to struggle for his approval. Which he’d had all along. Which he’d never again trust that he did. 

Tony had to get away from New York. Away from his most recent failure. And he’d had a life full of those, too. Head back to some old familiar failures. Leave Peter to develop his self-confidence on his own, without Tony stripping it from him at every turn.

Far, far away. For reasons that Peter would NEVER know.  _ MUST  _ never know. Because how fuckin’ pathetic was he? The only person he could trust was a fifteen year old kid. Because a fifteen year old kid hadn’t learned how to betray yet. The only person he could fall in love with was a fifteen year old kid. Because a fifteen year old kid hadn’t learned how to use the fact that he was in love, to hurt him. 

He was drunk before the jet even landed. Somehow, like he always did, managing to walk down those steps projecting an air of arrogant confidence. Always in control. Easily fooling everyone. 

Even Peter.

**Author's Note:**

> My Starker blog on tumblr is [starker-stories](https://starker-stories.tumblr.com/).  
> Come on by and visit.


End file.
